When fishing with a bobber, it can sometimes be difficult to determine when a fish is nibbling on the angler's line, especially in waters that have active waves or when one is fishing for passive or highly sensitive fish. Having difficulties in determining when a fish is nibbling on a line reduces the chance of an angler being able to hook and reel in the fish since premature jerking results in not hooking the fish or scaring nearby fish off.
The prior art includes bobbers with some type of spring setting action to set the hook. For example, in the embodiment shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,836 the float includes a resistance body such as a flat disk that abruptly increase the drag on the line as the fish pulls on the line.
In contrast, the present invention does not provide for setting of the hook but supplies visual information to the fisherperson through a first-stage slideable rod that allows the fisherperson to visually determine if a fish is nibbling the bait by visually observing the displacement of the slideable rod with respect to a bobber main body but before visual displacement of the bobber main body can be visually detected. The second-stage permits anglers to fish in a conventional manner as visual information is provided by submersion of both the slideable rod and the bobber main body.